Keep in mind dispensationalism wasn't a theological position until about 150 years ago. Thus it would have been difficult for Calvin to hold to it.
The "Jews" have held a "dispensation doctrine" almost since the "beginning of time", their time anyway. :laugh:
I couldn't find the exact reference I was looking for, "seven dispensations", but here is a two thousand years dispensation.
Jewish Time
The traditional Jewish understanding of the flow of history is similar to that found in all great epic stories: The plot unfolds within a finite time frame and is a clearly delineated into a beginning, a middle and an end. In the broadest of strokes the
Talmud, in tractate
Sanhedrin 97a, lays out the basic themes and periods of history:
The world is to exist for six thousand years. In the first two thousand there was desolation; two thousand years the Torah flourished; and the next two thousand years is the Messianic era...
The six thousand years mentioned in the Talmud is not calculated from creation of the universe, but rather from the birth of Adam and mirrors the weekly cycle. Just as the Jewish week begins on Sunday and runs through Friday, so too is human history is to comprise a maximum(5) of six millennia of history as we know it.
At the end of this weekly cycle we enter the Sabbath, a day of spirituality and rest, so too after a maximum of 6,000 years of history humanity will enter the seventh millennium called "the World to Come," in Hebrew
"Olam Haba." The World to Come is synonymous with the Garden of Eden and represents the culmination of the process of returning to God and perfecting the world (see
Derech Hashem 1:3:4)
We see from this quote in the Talmud that these 6,000 years are further subdivided into three 2,000 years periods each with its own theme. The first 2,000 years, from Adam to the Tower of Babel is called desolation. The theme of this period: Humanity is spiritually desolate and has no relationship with God.
The second 2,000 year period, from Abraham to the completion of Mishnah c 240C.E, is called
Torah. The theme of this period is Jewish national history in the Land of Israel and the flourishing of
Torah (the Law).
The final 2,000 year period, from 240C.E. until the year 6,000 (the year 2,240 C.E.), is called
Messiah. The theme of this final phase is humanity's return to God (led by the Jewish people). At the end of this period, but before the year 6,000, comes the
Messianic Era which is the final preparatory stage before humanity enters the World to Come.(6)
I "suspect" most "Christians" ideas for dispensations originated from Jewish doctrine, if the truth was known.
